DEFINITIVE FIGURES

VARIATION 1 : NEW ORLEANS

FEBRUARY 28 - MARCH 4, 2018

Definitive Figures is a festival of performance and community events created to amplify and explore the femme body in space. Conceived and produced by dance artist, Donna Costello, and physical theater creator, Jennifer Sargent, Definitive Figures aims to elevate and explore feminist ideas while negotiating our plural identities of race, class, and sex in a patriarchal society.

Variation 1 will take place in New Orleans from February 28 to March 4, 2018. Over five days, the festival will feature four core female-identifying artists presenting body-based performance work and will also feature a host of supporting events from stand-up comedy to a late-night dance party, each showcasing the diversity of femme experience through a variety of mediums.

Thursday, March 1

Using a 6-foot inflatable ball, two performers and video projection mapping, ”12” (titled from the measurement of an English king’s foot) will take a critical look at how systems of measurement inform how we perceive our world.

Jitterbug and the Aftermath is a raw, expressionistic movement-theater work exploring an unmoored feminine identity at midlife. The piece wrestles with social conceptions of a diminishing feminine cachet, the confusion of “post-feminist” gender roles, and aging as a slow corporeal death. Created by Donna Costello (a dance artist) and Jennifer Sargent (a physical theater artist), Jitterbug puts the body at the center of storytelling.

The mission of NARCISSE|MOVEMENT PROJECT is to provide a space in New Orleans for connection and integrated artistic expression that will promote the further development of a local professional dance community, and to make beautiful movement with professional artists in New Orleans who are interested in challenging what dance can be, who can make it, how it can matter, and where it can matter.

"Jitterbug and the Aftermath" is a raw, expressionistic movement-theater work exploring an unmoored feminine identity at midlife. The piece wrestles with social conceptions of a diminishing feminine cachet, the confusion of “post-feminist” gender roles, and aging as a slow corporeal death. Created by Donna Costello (a dance artist) and Jennifer Sargent (a physical theater artist), Jitterbug puts the body at the center of storytelling.

Photo of Madison Krekel

Saturday, March 3

Aurora Nealand loves sound. And language. And movement. And the moments when they intersect.

"The Monocle" is the musical solo vehicle of New Orleans based songwriter and multidisciplinary artist Aurora Nealand. "The Monocle" is a fragile 'birdcage project' of sounds; or to state it less loftily, it’s a bunch of art-pop songs and performance art pieces about feelings, reality, desire, and the dissonance between all those things. In Nealands words, "I believe that in sound and music, there is revolution, resistance and healing; that our voices and ears can be a force of true strength and diplomacy.”

Sprung from years of research in performativity of identity and textures of femininity, the Screaming Traps don’t know what is happening but they are curious. They watch you watch them. They appear and disappear. They change. They communicate. They subconsciously ask you to participate in unmaking what is objectified and objectifiable while still asking to be seen.

The Definitive Figures Dance Party at the Allways will be DJ'd by Amber Martin, a NYC downtown cabaret star. From vintage vinyl, Amber DJs the most magical parties in New York City and can get a room dancing, even when there's no dance floor!

The mission of NARCISSE|MOVEMENT PROJECT is to provide a space in New Orleans for connection and integrated artistic expression that will promote the further development of a local professional dance community, and to make beautiful movement with professional artists in New Orleans who are interested in challenging what dance can be, who can make it, how it can matter, and where it can matter.

Sprung from years of research in performativity of identity and textures of femininity, the Screaming Traps don’t know what is happening but they are curious. They watch you watch them. They appear and disappear. They change. They communicate. They subconsciously ask you to participate in unmaking what is objectified and objectifiable while still asking to be seen.